Posts By Matt

Finally started on some new art. It’s been a difficult process to get back into things after moving across the country, starting a new business, living in a new home. I can continue to make excuses but I guess all that matters is I’m settled in now and I once again have a studio space to work on my art. Looking forward to posting new work as I progress on it. My photo blog is still active and updated quite often. Check it here.

Lots of things occupying my time right now- Marriage, Moving, New business. Not really an excuse not to make art, but I’m afraid of starting a new painting and then just having it stagnate as all these current distractions monopolize my time. Pen & ink drawing has been keeping me grounded, as I can finish one of these in a few days at most. I’m still posting photos daily (almost) on my photo site NO LONELY ROADS.

I recently purchased a painting program for my Ipad called Procreate (which is a pretty hilarious name). I’m still learning how to use it, but I’m really enjoying the range of color I have to work with now. I enjoy sketching on paper, but I was never happy with my prismacolor results. This program allows me to sketch with colors that match how I want my paintings to look, and this first piece came out pretty close to the original sketch. Looking forward to working with this new process.

I’m gonna try something here. This drawing is available for $25 shipping included (domestic) to the first person who Emails Me. Please put TOWER STUDY 1-21 as the subject. I’m trying to figure out if this blog is a good means to sell some of my older pieces to people who have never gotten a chance to go to one of my shows. By selling my older work through this site, I can greatly reduce the price because I wont be paying a commission to any gallery (I love you BeepBeep). I’ll start off with this new pen + ink drawing and see how this works. If the response is strong, I’ll start posting older paintings and other finished pieces for sale on here. I’ll also post the sale pieces on my Instagram @relkinshelpins and on my Photo Blog NO LONELY ROADS. Looking forward to this experiment!

It took me a good while to get back in the mindset of sitting at my table and painting. I hadn’t painted since leaving on my last roadtrip in August of 2014. It’s always an adjustment to sit and paint after being outside for months and then poring over thousands of photos for more months, but now I feel rejuvenated once again, and I have tons of new reference material from my trip. I’m going to start this year with some small paintings and try to get them finished in days rather than weeks. I had just finished painting my largest, most complicated pieces ever before I left on my trip, and I need to get back to that level of skill, but I’m a little rusty right now. So expect a lot of new work up on here in the coming months, plus I’m updating my photo site NOLONELYROADS daily. Please check it out!

Just finished this portrait for Faces of Death 2014. The project requires artists to pick a famous individual who died in 2014 and draw their portrait, which will ultimately be printed on a shirt along with all the other portraits from the project. By the time I got wind of this, most of the names had already been taken, but Jean-Claude was still available so I grabbed him. I was vaguely familiar with who he was, but after reading more about this dude I began to feel like I had definitely chosen the right name. As president of Haiti from 1971-1986, Duvalier was said to be responsible for the incarceration and deaths of thousands of Haitians who opposed his regime, not to mention alleged involvement in drug trafficking and the sale of body parts (!). Like his father before him, Jean-Claude lived like a king, using aid money from the U.S. and other countries to finance his lavish lifestyle while the Haitian people struggled to survive the poverty that surrounded them. After years of protests and riots, Duvalier held a final champagne party for himself, and was then smuggled out of the country on an American military plane. He returned to Haiti after 25 years as an exile in France and died of a heart attack this year. He was never brought to trial for his crimes, and claimed his only mistake was that he may had been “too tolerant”.

During this last roadtrip, I got in the habit of hiking right before sunset in order to maximize my chances of encountering wildlife, especially snakes. This particular hike at City of Rocks State Park took me along a deep ravine where I encountered numerous critters, but these Great Horned Owls were the highlight. I began hearing some distant “Hoots” which grew louder as I proceeded along my path. I came around a wide corner and there was this pair of owls no doubt beginning their evening hunt. I’m guessing the lighter colored owl is the male, and the larger, darker one is the female, according to descriptions I’ve read. They let me get surprisingly close before they grew tired of my presence and flew further down the ravine, but what really struck me was how silent their movement was. They flew right overhead, maybe four feet above me, and I couldn’t hear the flapping of wings. Their feathers are extremely soft, which not only serves as effective insulation, but also allows them to fly quietly when pursuing their prey. Horned owls are known to be mates for life, so I bet this pair has been hunting the snakes and rodents around City of Rocks State Park for some time.

My initial idea was to only post art-related images here, but the result of that plan has been a focus on my travel photo site NOLONELYROADS.COM and the neglect of this blog. I’m going to change that and start posting photos & stories from my travels here as well as anything art-related. I guess you could call all of this “art-related” since I often use my photos as reference for my paintings. I’m most inspired by the American landscape, so it only makes sense to include all those images in this blog.
Here is a collection of shots from Highway 12 around Christmas 2013. This road, which in my opinion is the most beautiful in the entire country, spans 124 miles from Bryce Canyon Junction (Hwy 89) to Torrey. Driving along this incredible highway is like taking a highlight reel tour through the diverse landscape of southern Utah. Alpine forests, red rock canyons, towering mesas, ancient seabed buttes, rolling slickrock saddles, and desolate valleys all encompass this awesome route, but my absolute favorite section is between Boulder & Escalante. This stretch of road follows along the spine of the New Home Bench, with insane views from either side. It literally feels like you’re driving in the sky. Knowing that there are actual places in this world more fantastic than anything I could ever imagine is what keeps me painting. I strive to create something as awe-inspiring as the world I see before me.